Investment opportunities in Thailand and Malaysia

Tuesday, 25 September 2007 12:00 AM

Malaysia's commercial property market and the tourism driven prospects of Thailand are creating investment opportunities for western buyers.

That is according to Investors Provident, which points to figures from Lipper Hindsight showing the property market in Malaysia has seen growth of 77 per cent in the last year alone, creating a wealth of opportunities for overseas property buyers.

The revenue from tourism is also increasing by 6.8 per cent annually, according to the country's official statistics.

Similarly Thailand remains a popular destination, with Bangkok the most visited city in Asia.

Both are now ripe for investment.

"Malaysia has really been commercially active," commented Hetal Shah, director of Investors Provident.

"A lot of people who are buying there are looking at city centres, so a lot of the demand is driven by the local market. It does make a good investment from a city centre point of view."

Thailand is also benefiting from its tourist reputation, making holiday home investment more likely.

"It is probably the image that Thailand gives out, just generally. A lot of people who go there just go on holiday - they're not looking at it from a commercial point of view," continued Mr Shah.

The launch of no-frills flights to the region is also expected to boost tourist activity, including new services by AirAsia X.

"I think AirAsia X is a similar concept to easyJet. What easyJet has done to the European sector, AirAsia X is trying to do for the Far Eastern sector.

"I think they started with Hong Kong, and now they're going to Malaysia and are looking at other areas like Thailand, Singapore, India. And these are low-cost - they're £70, £80 flights, which is like the easyJet concept but obviously you have to book well in advance.

"At the end of the day, they are very, very cheap flights. And that's definitely going to open up the market," concluded Mr Shah.

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